Edgardo Vega Yunqué

Edgardo Vega Yunqué (May 20, 1936 – August 26, 2008) was a Puerto Rican novelist and short-story writer, who also used the Americanized pen name Ed Vega.

Edgardo Vega Yunqué was born in Ponce to Alberto Vega, a Baptist minister, and Abigail Yunqué, and lived in Cidra, Puerto Rico, until his family moved to the South Bronx in 1949. Even as a child he loved to read, and became familiar with many of the great European works. His seminal influences included Cervantes, Azorín, Borges, Unamuno, Lope de Vega, Victor Hugo, and members of the Generation of '27 literary movement.[1]

Upon graduating from high school in 1954, he joined the United States Air Force.[2] During his leave time Vega focused on reading and analysis of American literature, after finding a large collection of books at his sister's house.[1]

After his Air Force service Vega attended Santa Monica College, and eventually got his degree from New York University. He dropped out of school temporarily after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and worked in East Harlem as part of the war on poverty.

Vega was married to Pat Vega née Patricia Jean Schumacher on December 31, 1961; their marriage ended in divorce in 1997. They had three children: Alyson, Matthew, and Tim. Vega was also the stepfather of Suzanne.

Vega died on August 26, 2008 from a possible thrombosis at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York City.

At the time of his death, Vega had completed the novel How That Dirty Rotten Charlie Maisonet Turned Me into a Puerto Rican Sex Freak and was finishing the story collection A Place of Remembrance on an Island Called Regret and the nonfiction book Spic, Writing Under the Threat of Censorship in the United States: A Jeremiad.

The New York Times obituary hailed Vega's honesty and his "picaresque, combustive and sometimes flamboyantly comic expressions of the Puerto Rican experience in New York’s multicultural maelstrom."

David Gonzalez of the New York Times blogged that "his novels captured the crazy glory of this city and its people, with jazzy riffs and elegant solos that flowed with rhythm. His words could dazzle, amuse and even infuriate."

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgardo_Vega_Yunqué Wikipedia
• Video from the Ed Vega memorial service (with many family photos) on YouTube